Issue #06: THE BODY IN THE RAW. NUDITY TODAY.

January- March 2014

THE BODY IN THE RAW. NUDITY NOW scrutinises what a naked body can say today that a clothed body cannot. Let it be said from the outset, this theme was triggered by recent cases of artistic censorship, largely in Australia. While artists have been and are censored for supposedly hurting moral sensibilities in relation to a range of legal offences, such as sedition, blasphemy, obscenity, and defamation, cases of late involving censorship and outrage have all been centred around the nude human body.

Angela Conquet

The flesh is still weak. So is the mind.

The naked body externalises what its membrane hides, it is a deliberate pose, presentation or distortion. Art acts as a mirror of the culture that produces it, and if this mirror depicts less than orthodox images of the body, this is merely a reflection of our times. Read more...

Roland Huesca

Nudity and figures of transgression at the end of the 20th century

In the 90s naked dancers created unheard of ways of living and feeling the body: sensitively, they offered a different kind of story where nudity, far from incarnating an ideal, appeared instead to propose a new sensory order. Read more...

Diary Entry Contributions

What can a naked body say today that a clothed body cannot?

Diary entries by Jill Orr, Maud Davey, Atlanta Eke, Daniel Léveillé and Deborah Hay. Read more...

Phillip Adams, Jill Orr and Jessica Sabatini

Phillip Adams in conversation with Jill Orr

What went wrong?! Where did we go wrong with our naked politics? Read more...

Jo Faulkner

Censorship, nudity and childhood innocence: from Henson to Yore

Life intrudes upon the fantasy of the innocent child. Childhood nudity comes to be associated not with innocence, but its betrayal. Read more...

Alice Heyward

Nakedness is a process not a state

The key is that, in life and art, nakedness is a process, not a state. We are our bodies, our bodies are our selves. Nudity generates self-knowledge and power. Read more...

Gulsen Ozer

Prude

For many artists, performing naked is a rite of passage, an act of bravery, a sacrifice of the self for art, even a conquering of the ego. Read more...

Audrey Schmidt

Everything is fucked

It is the aesthetic which distinguishes the artistic from the pornographic and the moral which provides the societal gauge that transforms the erotic into the obscene. Read more...

Bojana Kunst

The Economy of Proximity: Dramaturgical Work in Contemporary Dance

Dramaturgical work in dance seems to reflect the increasing need for theory and reflection, which re-questions the a priori truths and self-evidence of dance. Read more...

About this issue

Editorial Board

Philipa Rothfield (Chair), Angela Conquet.

Guest Editor

Jill Orr.

Contributors

Roland Huesca, Maude Davey, Deborah Hay, Atlanta Eke, Daniel Léveillé, Jo Faulkner, Alice Heyward, Nebahat Erpolat, Phillip Adams and Jill Orr, Gulsen Ozer, Audrey Schmidt and Bojana Kunst.

Credits and Acknowledgements

Cover images: Jill Orr, Love Songs
Photographer: Virginia Fraser for Jill Orr
Images courtesy of the artist.

Dancehouse would like to warmly thank the editorial board and all the contributors, particularly Jill Orr for her incredible photographic art works. A special thank you to Chloe Chignell and Jessica Sabatini.

Graphic Design: Famous Visual Services famousvs.com

This website was developed with the support of the IAN POTTER FOUNDATION.

Where to get it

Dancehouse Diary Issue #06: NUDITY NOW is available to collect, free of charge, at the following locations:

Dancehouse
150 Princes Street
North Carlton
VIC 3054
AUSTRALIA

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Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in this Dancehouse Diary are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of Dancehouse.

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Reproduction without permission is prohibited.